A couple of pice of my new brace, got it along with bumpsteer and eibachs last week - a real and great improvement!

http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/getpi...4259646633.jpg
http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/getpi...4259501456.jpg

Can you post a close up of the attachement points?

I'll do tomorrow Claudius.

Matt

Liar :(

Hey Matt,

How much was the strut brace?

Neil.

£85 + vat.

Claudius, are you STILL banging on about the attachment points?

Why? What's troubling you mate? Can i help?

Yes.

It cant be good for the suspension upper mounts / geometry etc. Not saying it will break off, but I'm a little worried.

Yes. Hack the site and delete the pictures ;) Erm, no, I dont think so.

Fair enough, i hear where you're coming from, but AFAIK, no-one has ever reported structural problems from a strut brace.

Ok, there's probably some lunatic race car which has had some sort of failure attributable to a strut brace, but i bet not many.

All i'd say is that based on that evidence, it's a risk worth taking, and the benefits to the car outweigh the potential problems, IMO. After all, Subar wouldn't have continued to fit them as standard equipment on Sti's if there was proof that they were a potential hazard, and the aftermarket ones are basically the same as Subaru's, if not slightly better built...

Good to see that you trust them.

But what about the Audi TT sudden oversteer at high speed, the RS4 wheels, the etc etc etc.?

Well yes, but you'd have to say Subaru have had what, 10 years of experience with strut braces in Sti's? So i'd hope any problems would have shown up by now.

I think there would be more of an issue if these bolts were really highly stressed, but they're not. They're a bit more than "keep the strut in position" bolts, but not much. If they needed to be great big 1" bolts or whatever, i'd have hoped Subaru would have fitted them as such. After all, the majority of forces on the strut are up and down, not side to side, so most of the time the weight of the chassis is pinning the struts in place.

And since a bolted-on strut brace isn't solely relying on the lateral strength of these bolts for it's effectiveness, but also the combined pressure of the three nuts onto the strut brace end-plates onto the strut tower, i'd have thought there was ample inherrent strength to cope with any additional stress a strut brace could throw at it, especially since the bulkhead itself acts as a brace, albeit a flexible one!

Would be happy to hear from anybody who can show that strut braces are dangerous though, as i don't want to run unnecessary risks either!

That was very reassuring, thanks. :)

I dont think they're dangerous! LOL! :D Normally it's me exaggerating stuff, now it's you! :)

Hope all goes well ;) LOL

Had a look under the bonnet of a new M3 (built June 02) at our meet last night. Poor bloke goes out for a meal with his wife and nipper and ends up with the bonnet up when jumped by a load of interested Scooby drivers.

All new build M3s have a front strut brace as standard FWIW.